Learning environment of the native language is daily contact with people who speak it; for Japanese language learners in Taiwan Japanese language is limited to textbooks and strongly influenced by teachers’ methodology. Arakawa (2002, p. 21) claims Japanese passives are used much more frequently than their Chinese counterparts. This paper will present critical points in the textbook editing process, which takes the learners’ native language into consideration so that they can learn Japanese passives effectively.
First, the researcher analyzed grammatical characteristics of both Japanese and Chinese passives semantically, morphologically, and syntactically. Secondly, comparative studies of passive sentences used in ordinary scenes from literatures, textbooks, and scripts of TV dramas were conducted. Finally, learners’ comprehensive knowledge and productive ability of passive sentences were tested and analyzed.
Taking the aforementioned three analyzed information into consideration, this paper objectively and tangibly clarifies dissimilarity of passives in two languages, then evaluates possible causes of learners’ misuse of Japanese passives. Furthermore, based on dissimilarity in passives, the researcher proposes efficient instructional method grounded on four linguistic tenets related two languages: (a) a restriction of viewpoint—a performer of action always takes his/her point of view in organizing sentence structures (Hisano 1978, p. 146); (b) noun phrase hierarchy claimed by Kadota (2002); (c) Japanese speakers tend to indicate less explicitly who performs action (Ikegami, 1991, p. 207); (d) a great deal of Chinese sentences have a performer of the action as a sentence subject (Arakawa, 2002, p. 35).
Accordingly, the proposed instructional method of passives consists of eight steps: [1] “direct passive”—direct object in active sentences presented as subject; [2] “direct passive”—indirect object in active sentences presented as subject; [3] “indirect passive”—owner of possession affected by another person; [4] “adversity passive”; [5] “direct passive”—inanimate object presented as subject”; [6] “passive” creating ambiguous ownership of the contents; [7] non-passive emotional sentences use passive in Chinese; [8] consistency of viewpoint in complex sentences. The researcher hopes Japanese language learners in Taiwan can benefit from this study.